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All council members support body cameras for Houston's police force, but several had issues with having to vote on a vendor contract while there are still unanswered questions.
Council member Larry Green summed it up.
"One, we don't know how much it's going to cost," he said. "Two, we don't know whether or not it's even compatible to whether or not we're going to use a Cloud-base or whether or not we're going to use a server-base. Three, we're going to buy a tool that we don't even have a policy for."
Green voted for the contract, saying he didn't want to be on record voting against body cameras.
Council members Michael Kubosh, Brenda Stardig, Mike Laster and C.O. Bradford voted against this particular contract, all saying they wanted more time.
After the vote was already postponed from last week, a motion to delay failed.
Council member Dwight Boykins was particularly adamant about no longer delaying a vote on body cameras, invoking Robbie Tolan and Trayvon Martin.
"Let's tell all these kids who lost their lives because there was no camera that we have an opportunity to vote on it and we want to push it back for 30 days," Boykins said.
There will be more discussions on policy details, like when an officer has to turn the camera on or how long data is kept.
The plan is to equip the first officers in two to three months and outfit the entire force within a year and a half.
